


The Aftermath

by Silvyia



Category: Avengers: Age of Ultron - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-04-12 12:15:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 11,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4478912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvyia/pseuds/Silvyia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the last battle with Ultron and the Avengers, the bodies of the robot were all being found by each of the Avengers and all of S.H.I.E.L.D., desperately trying to keep away another Ultron accident. But what happens when a young engineer finds one before they can? A lot more than she was asking for, that's for sure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Green. That was all that was in sight, for as far as the naked eye could see. Soft shades of green, brown, and amber littered around the grassy hill, still damp from the morning rain. 

'8:42 PM' her watch read in bright red letters. She huffed and pulled her sleeve back down. Her mom was going to kill her. She was supposed to be back an hour and a half ago, for dinner with her mothers' friends. She had lost track of time..Of course, she most likely wouldn't have gone back even if she hadn't lost track of the time, she was finding such good things in this area!

Ever since the fight against Ultron, about six months ago, there had been leftover metal pieces all over the place. The Avengers were cleaning most of it up, of course, but as a young engineer, Sarah couldn't help but want to study the strange metals herself. Ultron had been an interesting life form. Terrifying, yes, but interesting nonetheless. Before today, she had only been able to find scraps barely larger than her pinkie. Though this hill looked promising.

The hill was charred, getting worse and worse the higher you climbed it, to the point that the very top looked almost pitch black burnt. The charred smell got worse as well, and Sarah had to cover her nose at the top due to the smell burning her nose. But it was worth it. Because there, at the center of the pitch black circle of burnt grass..

Was a full droid.

Well, almost a full droid. It was missing an arm and half of its' leg seemed to be hanging on by a few wires. The entire body was covered in ash and rust, and multiple spots on the helm were torn and broken. This droid had seen hell and back, that's for sure. 

The droid was too big for her to carry back home, and as she got closer, it was obvious it was still hot to the touch from the burning. Sarah sat there for a moment, looking at the droid, thinking of what to do. Then she got an idea. She turned and ran down the hill quickly, almost tripping over her own two feet in the process, to her backpack she had brought with her on the trip. Next to her torn and battered gray backpack was a rusty red wagon, holding the smaller scraps that she had found at the bottom of it. Comparing it to the droid she had found, it looked kinda pathetic...

actually it looked pathetic before, too.

She opened her backpack and shoved all the small pieces inside, careful not to cut herself on the sharper pieces, and she put her backpack on her back, bending down to pick up the handle of the wagon. She looked back up at the hill and sighed. It was not fun climbing up hill, especially not while carrying something heavy. But she quickly dissed the thought after remembering what was on top of that hill. 

After climbing her way back up, with her backpack full of sharp things digging into her back and her red wagon, she made her way to the center of the burns again. To the droid. It hadn't moved since she had left to retrieve her things, but there was no way she was going to risk it. As she walked over, she grabbed a stick. She knelt down next to the droid body, covering her mouth and nose with the sleeve of her favorite purple jacket, looking into what was probably the eyes. After a moment, she reached out and poked the helm with the stick. The head moved to the side a bit from the impact, and something clanged on the inside of it. So there was something inside of it...?

She poked the body a few more times for good measure before agreeing that it was dead and not going to jump up at her. That would be terrifying. But it still stands to reason that it would be too hot for her to touch even now, if the smoke rising from the back of the body meant anything. Hm.

Good thing she brought gloves.

She took the gloves out of her backpack, put them on her hands, and reached toward the droid with one hand, carefully. She placed her hand on the back, holding it there for a few seconds before it began to warm her hand. Yeah, still hot. She took her hand back and shook it a few times to cool it down. Sarah sighed and turned, grabbing her wagon and bringing it as close as she could to the droid without burning the rubber on it. After it settled on the dry, crusty ground, she inhaled and held her breath for a few seconds while thinking of how to do this. Should she just... grab it and try to put it in the wagon? She didn't know how heavy it was, and it could end up burning her arms pretty bad if she slipped up.

\----

About another half hour later, Sarah had finally gotten the body into the wagon and placed a tarp over it(she simply grabbed it by the legs and dragged it into the wagon). The tarp was for protection, to make sure it didn't fall out, but also to make sure she didn't get caught with it. She could get in serious trouble for messing with this. Now, usually Sarah was not one to break the rules, but her curiosity got the better of her and she just couldn't resist!

On her long walk home, she checked her watch for the umpteenth time. 

9:21 PM

Yeah. Her mother was going to kill her. That is, if her hunger didn't kill her first. She went out thinking she'd only find a few scraps and be home before her mom's friends got there, but she ended up staying a lot longer than she'd anticipated. She was so lucky it was a Friday.

She got home a lot faster than she thought she would, she didn't have enough time to think of a valid excuse as to why she was out so late. So here her mother was, standing on the porch with her arms crossed and one of her feet tapping on the ground impatiently. Sarah slowed her pace and hid the wagon behind her further, but she knew her mother knew she had the wagon.

“Heeeeeey, Mom....” She laughed nervously. Her mother pointed to the house and took a step back. “Grounded. A week.”

\----

After dragging her wagon into the garage slowly, watching her mother retreat into the main part of their house, she hurried to drag the wagon through the hallway before her mom saw her with it. She made her way to her bedroom, and she locked her door behind her. After kicking a few things out of the way(mostly under her bed), she pulled the tarp off of the droid and folded it. What? She's OCD, she can't help it.

Good thing is that the droid didn't burn through her wagon to the floor. Bad news is, how was she going to open it up? It was still too hot to touch, but there was something inside of its' head, and if she waited too long, it could burn or melt. Or both.

…

“Screw it,” she finally decided. Screw it. She would open the head, using gloves or something. She was way too curious, and there was no way she was going to wait. 

Sarah Harken was not a very patient person.


	2. Chapter 2

Three and a half hours later, Sarah almost had a small hatch on the side of the droid's head open. Almost... Just a little more...

She had decided to use her gardening gloves. Of course, she doesn't garden, she used them whenever she was going out to find metals or anything else. She didn't like getting dirt underneath her nails. Hands getting dirty, fine. Nails? No way. It just... was wrong for her. Felt really weird and horrible and she didn't like it. Though she does like fresh fruits, maybe she should start gardening. 

Anyway... The garden gloves could only keep the heat at bay for so long, so whenever her hands started getting too warm for her to stand, she held them up in front of her bedroom fan for a few minutes to cool them off. Of course, this happened often, as it wasn't very hard for Sarah to warm up too much for her comfort. She was used to the bitter, colder weather, so just going through summer was torture enough for her.

So here she was, three and a half hours later, with her newly cold gloves on the side of the droid's head, prying away the last big of a small, rectangular hatch.

So close... alllllmost doneee.....aaaand-

“aAH--” Sarah screamed, falling backwards and off of the edge of her bed that she was ever so precariously balanced on, when something, whatever was making that jingling inside of his head, popped and basically fired at her like a bullet. It missed her head, just barely grazed her cheek, before flying behind her and lodging itself into something behind her. Probably her laptop. Fuck, she hoped it wasn't her laptop, that was the only one she had and she didn't have the money to replace it at the moment. 

Though at the moment she was only acutely aware of two things; one- the sting in her cheek and the small drop of warm liquid running down it. Two- the thing that was inside his head... was not outside his head. And also probably buried somewhere in her laptop.

Pressing her two fingers lightly to her cheek, she hissed when it burned as she touched it. Pulling it back, she huffed when she saw the dark red on her fingers. She was cut, but it wasn't deep. Okay, so number one wasn't a problem. Now time for number two..

Pft. Number two... Damn it, she has got to grow up.

Turning around and praying to the god that she doesn't believe in that her laptop would be fine, she groaned when she saw that it did, in fact, get lodged into her laptop after being shot out of his head. Helm. Still not clear on what it should be called.

But yeah, anyway, my laptop is fucked.

Getting over the denial that I wouldn't have the Internet to my immediate aid, I got up to check out the damage and take out that head bullet thingy. Though as she came closer, she realized that it was lodged in pretty deep (that's what she said). She wouldn't be able to get it out of her laptop (sob) without taking it apart to find it. Or, well, she could smash it against the floor and hope that the thingy fell out some way or another.

Yeah, no, she wasn't going to do that. Her laptop was fucked enough as it is.

 

So here she was now, another half hour later, delicately pulling apart the screen to her laptop to get to the metal lodged between them. She has found out by now that it is, indeed, a metal object. And it seemed to be electronic, too, if the electricity it keeps shooting out at her meant anything. Which it does.

“Hmmm,” she hummed as she pried the electronic with a pair of tweezers. What, is, this..? Though she mde a sharp intake of air when she realized what it was. It was a little beaten up, pretty burned on the edges and a bunch of scratches around it, but overall she could still see what it was. And looking back at the droid, she made the connection pretty quickly.

Inside the droid's head were his own memories and personality. He was downloaded into this drive in her hands. She could bring Ultron back to life with this.

She was literally holding his life in her hands...

…

Oh, she was so calling Louisa.


	3. Chapter 3

“To be,” Sarah mumbled, mostly to herself, as the droid currently stationed in front of her most likely couldn't hear her, as he was kind of dead.

After giving her closest and possible her only friend, Louisa, a call, she had been frustrated to be sent straight to voice mail. Several tries and even a few texts later, she just gave up on the idea of Louisa answering her. At least not today, or any time soon. Thinking back to it now, she was probably just sleeping in. It was, after all, around 8 in the morning. Currently being summer time, and school starting up again next month, she was trying to take advantage and was now sleeping in in the day time.

That lil shit.

So here Sarah was, sitting on her wheely chair with her back to her desk, which was clustered with her newly repaired laptop, which had taken a long time and even still it was cracked all over the screen and almost useless now, still, her phone which she almost broke out of frustration of Louisa not calling her back, and a bunch of scrap metals she either found in the field or she ripped from other, larger metals. 

And here the droid, that she recently learned was a lackey for Ultron, the robo jerk that leveled a city and killed a lot of people in a few days, was sitting on her bed with his back to the wall and his legs hanging off the edge. Or, rather, leg as in singular, because the other was pretty much fucked over. As was his right arm, which was missing entirely. A little below his shoulder was where it ended, and a bunch of wires were sticking out dangerously, a few sparks flying out every now and then, hinting toward the fact that he still had some juice in him. Literally the only thing standing in the way of him being brought back to life, was her. Sarah held the only way to bring him back in her hands.

She honestly couldn't tell if that was exciting or terrifying. Or both.

Any sane person would say 'hell no', and Louisa would have done the same. Which is probably the only reason why she was still considering it at the moment. If Louisa said no, she'd give her reason why she should, but Louisa would win in the end. She always does. That manipulative little optimistic is both parts terrifying and lovable. 

So yeah, here Sarah was, sitting on her spinning chair with a bag of banana chips in her lap, haphazardly throwing one at the body of one of the many of Ultron's droids every now and then while thinking about it. Whether she should or not. She threw another chip at him, aiming at his face and hitting one of his eyes. Or, where his eye would be.

“...or not to be. That,” she sighed, throwing another chip at him, hitting his intact arm. “is the question.” She groaned, sitting back in her chair. Why? Why did she find it, and why did she bring it here? Or course, she didn't regret it one bit, this was awesome! But she hated making big decisions, so.. kind of, slightly, less awesome. So she went on to talk to herself about whether she should or shouldn't.

“You leveled a city and killed a lot of people. You're still trying to kill a lot of people. All of the people, in fact. You wanna kill all of them. Why?” She hummed, eating another banana chip. After a moment of thinking, she threw one at him, this time actually managing to hit somewhere around the mouth. Ha. As if he would just get up and eat it. Robots don't even eat human food, right?.. Yeah, they don't. Okay. Good.

She hummed again, letting her hands drop and rest her head on the back of her chair. “Rrrrright... tsk tsk...” she clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, no objective in mind, just making random noises while she thought. Her mind drifted to her cheek, bringing her hand up to feel the cut and flinching away when it stung. She probably should have cleaned it, but whatever. She never cleaned her cuts and she always ended up fine. This was definitely another thing that Louisa is always getting upset about with her, she was always telling her to clean up her wounds, telling her she would get infected. She was probably right, but she still laughed while remembering one of their conversations. She had gotten a particularly nasty cut on her leg, and Louisa warned her that if she didn't clean it she would lose her leg.

Bing!

Sarah nearly fell from her chair when her phone went off, signaling a text message. She calmed immediately, however, when the thought of the texts she had sent to Louisa came to mind. It could be a response from her. 

She lowered her feet and instead used them to swivel her chair to see her desk. Her phone lay, vibrating against the table just slightly. She picked it up and sat up straighter, reading the message.

L: what

Sarah broke out into laughter. Yeah, she probably just woke her up. She sniffed and responded quickly.

S: I got some cool shit c'mere  
L: cmere as in come to your hose  
L: house  
S: Yes, come over to my hose. We're gonna play around in the water all day.   
S: Seriously though come over and don't tell anyone  
L: secret stuff?  
S: Secret stuff.   
L: aight brb

She smiled and put her phone back down on her desk. Turning, she eyes the droid's body, which had slumped down further when she moved her feet. Now it looked like a lazy school kid in their least favorite class, slumped over and ready to sleep for a year or two.

Now to wait for Louisa to come over.


	4. Chapter 4

23 minutes. It took Louisa 23 minutes to shower, change into comfortable clothing, and make her way down to Sarah's house. 

“Oh, Louisa!” Sarah's mother, Samantha, greeted Louisa at the door. Louisa smiled warmly. Their families were very close with each other. Louisa greeted her back and enveloped her in a warm hug. After parting from the hug, Samantha sidestepped and let Louisa enter, and she smiled politely.

“Excuse the mess, I would have cleaned up a bit if Sarah had told me that she was inviting someone over. I mean-” Louisa turned to see Sarah at the top of the stairs. “-She is grounded after all.” Sarah visibly cringed and smiled nervously. Louisa rolled her eyes, making her way up the stairs. It was so like her to go against the rules. And then go against the punishment when she got in trouble for ignoring said rules. 

As she went up the stairs, Sarah opened her door and bowed dramatically. “Losers first.”

Louisa entered the room, lightly hitting Sarah on the shoulder as she passed. She laughed and entered as well, closing the door behind her. 

“Okay, what secret stuff?” Louisa asked, plopping down on the bed, only to stand back up instantly. Sarah held back a laugh and rubbed her hands together. “That- that was the secret stuff. You just- sat on the secret stuff..” She laughed quietly, covering it up with a cough when Louisa sent her a look. She turned and lifted up the blanket, going still. 

“You- you're...” “Yeah,” Sarah interrupted her, walking up next to her. “Is it alive?” She whispered. 

“I- uh,” She fumbled for an answer, thinking about how to word it correctly. “No. Not right now, no.” Louisa let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding, and put the blanket down. Then she turned on her heel, looking Sarah in the eyes.

“That's not the worst part, is it?” It was Sarah's turn to hold her breath nervously. She drew in a breath and let it out slowly, looking down as if she was being scolded. Knowing Louisa, she probably was about to be. Knowing what the answer was, Louisa groaned and settled for sitting in her chair, scooting back to look at the droid body. “Of course. It's always something worse with you,” She sighed. “So?”

Sarah sat on the edge of the bed, cautious to not jumble the droid. She chose her words carefully. 

“It's not dead.”

Louisa almost shot out of the chair. “WHAT?” She sat at the edge of the chair, holding onto the arm chairs tightly. “You said it was dead!” She accused.

“No, no,” Sarah held up her hands defensively. “I said it wasn't alive, but it isn't dead either...” Louise made a noise. A mix of confusion, anger, and a little bit of being scared shitless. “What do you mean?!”

“I mean, well, he's not alive right now,” I motioned to the robot body behind me, laying on the bed without a care in the world. “but he can be.” That part seemed to scare Louisa the most, and she sat back in the chair, rigid. “Explain. Now.” I drew in a sharp breath and got up, nodding, and walking over to my desk. Pushing the chair aside so I could get to my laptop, I opened it up and pulled up a file from my desktop. I didn't feel the need to hide the file, the file containing the information from the thumbdrive I took out of the droids head, so I simply put it on the desktop for easy access. Opening the folder, I explained to her what it was.

“There was this, this drive in the head of the robot,” I picked up the drive from my desk, waving it a bit. “When I hooked it up to my laptop and checked out what was inside of it,” I opened one of the files inside the folder, playing a video. The video showed the last known whereabouts of the robot. In Sokovia, the city in Russia that he raised in the air and threatened to drop back down. In the video, he was fighting with the Avengers, with Thor and Iron Man. 

“They're his memories.”

“No. No, absolutely not, Sarah. No way,” Louisa turned around in the chair, waving her arms. “You are not going to bring that thing back.” I sighed. Yeah, I kinda knew she would say no to the idea. 

“Okay, but what if I didn't bring that guy back,” I pointed to the screen. “And instead just.. made someone new?” I moved my hands while I spoke, trying to convey what I meant. I never liked explaining things. It was harder to say than it was to think it. She gave me a confused look and I sighed.

“Like, what if I didn't give him his memories back, but instead just gave him his programming so he was alive, but not with the same murderous ideas?”

For once, Louisa didn't shoot down the idea. Not instantly, at least, but it was bound to happen. Especially if she kept explaining things the way she was now.

Though in about an hour, she had watched a lot of the memories he had, with Sarah of course, and was begrudgingly deciding whether or not she was okay with this. I mean, she said no at first, of course, but Sarah had given a good argument. She could take away the memories, all of them, and create someone new. 

“Yeahh, okay,” Louisa finally sighed. “I am not okay with this, mind you, and I want you to be as careful as you can be around this thing. I mean it!” She said, sternly, when Sarah started bouncing around excitedly. “As careful as you can be! Even with your cuts and everything.”

Sarah stopped bouncing and stood straight, raising her left hand to her forehead to salute. “Yes, Ma'am.”

“You salute with your right hand, dummy.”

“Yes, Ma'am.”


	5. Chapter 5

Sunday morning, 7:48 AM. I woke up the next morning with a headache. Louisa stayed for dinner last night, helping to clean up afterwards. She stayed about two hours after that, too, to help me with my homework and to talk about the whole robot thing. Mostly setting up rules. She was very protective, so of course they were all about protection. Wear goggles and gloves when messing with the body, clean any cuts, yadda yadda yadda. 

We spent the rest of the night together sifting through memories and deciding if any of them were important to keep. But nope, all of them were about him hating humans, so we weren't keeping any of them. Which meant he would know nothing. Nothing about his past, about what he did, who he was, he won't have access to the internet either, to stop him from remembering anything, so he won't be able to learn anything on his own. Which meant he would be like a child. He wouldn't know anything about Earth or about humans, either. 

And as I sat up in my bed, pushing my messy, short, brown hair back out of my face, one thought crossed my mind.

I was way too young to be raising a child.

So, after Louisa left last night, all of the memory files and internet access were deleted. Everything left on the drive was just enough to give him life. Nothing more.

Louisa was coming back later today, sometime in the afternoon. She may not be happy about this whole thing, but if it was gonna happen, she was gonna be here to see it. 

After getting over the initial fog of grogginess, I shot up to shower and get ready for the day. I was so looking forward to today. As I was brushing my teeth, however, my phone rang. I spit out the toothpaste and checked the caller I.D.

Louisa.

I smiled and answered the call, washing off my toothbrush.

“Hey, hey, girl!”  
“Hey, boi. Wassup?”

I rinsed my mouth with mouthwash.

“Is the robojerk alive yet, or is he still wasting away on your bed? “

I spit out the mouthwash, coughing at the numb feeling it left. I never got used to that.

“Yeah, no, he's on the floor. On some blankets, of course, I'm not that mean. I'll upload the data in a minute, then I'll eat breakfast. 'should be done by the time breakfast is over. When you comin' over?”

I heard a sigh at the other end. “Dunno. Maybe after you got him all calm and everything. I don't wanna barge in through the wall while he's panicked about where he is and who you are.”

“I don't want you barging in through my wall, either.” Louisa laughed. “I mean that might be kinda expensive to replace-”

“Shut the fuck up, dude. You know what I meant. But anyway, listen, what'cha gonna name him?”

I put away the mouthwash and took in a deep breath, relishing the cold feeling left in my mouth afterward. “I- uh- is that a trick question? I mean, I was just gonna say his name was Ultron still.”

Louisa and I spent the next couple of minutes discussing what I should name him, and why I shouldn't name him Ultron. I plugged the drive intro the droid and hooked it up to the laptop, starting the download. I let it download as I poured myself a cup of orange juice and put two waffles into the toaster.

“You should totally call him Charon.”

“No- Looz, stop it. Charon is an innocent kitten, okay, he will not be dragged into this,” I smiled, sitting on the counter as I waited for the waffles and sipped my orange juice. 

“I know Charon is innocent, which is why you should call this guy Charon. So he'll be innocent. Charon is an evil robot who turned good, right? It'd be, like, an example for Ultron or something. Like a good luck symbol, or charm.”

I sighed. She had a point. Besides, Charon was a fictional character I made up when I was a kid, so it's not like I'd be doing anything bad or something to name him Charon. “Yeah, okay, I'll think about naming him Charon. But don't count on it,” I said quickly. She sniffed. 

“Pleeeeeease???” “Stop it. I'll think about it, no promises.” Louisa sighed, and the other side of the phone went quiet. Before I could ask why she was being so quiet, the toaster popped up and I jumped off the counter, dropping my phone.

“fuCK-” I drew in a sharp breath when my phone hit the tiled floor, cracking and splintering the screen. After a moment of hesitation, I bent down and picked it up. 

“Looz?” “Yo! What happened?” I sighed in relief when I realized it wasn't broken. “I dropped my phone. The screen cracked and I thought it broke, but I guess it's just the screen?” Louisa made a sound on the other end of the phone and sighed. 

“You are such a klutz, I swear. How are you still alive, what with all the things you break and how many times you hurt yourself.”

I snorted, taking a plate out of the cupboard and placing the two waffles down quickly, waving my fingers when they burned from the hot food. “Shush, you.”

“I honestly can't tell if you're the unluckiest person ever for falling so much, or the luckiest, for never getting hurt from all the times you fall.” “Yeah, yeah,” I mumble quietly, picking up my plate and cup and walking up the stairs, my phone in my pocket on speakerphone.

“Don't 'yeah yeah' me, woman.” “Don't 'woman' me, girl,” I shot back jokingly, smiling as I pushed my bedroom door open with my hip. I stopped instantly, however, when I looked up at the droid. 

Or, rather, the lack of a droid.

Where the hell is the robot...?

I put my cup and plate down on the desk in the corner and pulled out my phone. “-ill think it won't work, but whatever. It's you we're talking about, after all-” “Looz hold on,” I whispered quickly, putting my phone back against my ear and taking it off speakerphone, looking around the room slowly.

“What? What's wrong?” 

“Ultron's gone. Don't see him anywhere.” I did a quick double-take on the room, making sure that nothing was moved or out of place. Except everything was moved and out of place. My sheets were tossed on the floor, ripping at one end. My electronics were scattered across the desk, a few of them had fallen to the floor, the more delicate objects broken or cracked from the fall. My closet door was open wide with all of my clothing strewn about and hangers tossed to the floor. 

It looked like a tornado passed through here.

“What d'you mean? Where is he?” “I don't know, Looz, I just told you I don't see-” I was cut off from my explanation when the sound of breaking glass came from behind me. I turned on my heel to see my bathroom door opened. “I'll call you back,” I said before hanging up the phone without waiting for a reply. 

I tip-toed to the door, placing my phone on my desk on the way. I made my way to the door, pushing it open a crack to see inside. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one who heard the door creak open, as the droid inside, wrapped up in the shower curtain, turned around and fell over the curtain wrapped around its' feet.


	6. Chapter 6

The robot panicked when it hit the floor, wrapped up in the shower curtains limited its' movements. The fall tore the curtain off of the hinges, and I winced when they clattered to the floor. I'd have to clean that later.

But back to the important part of what was going on right now.

The robot flailed, trying to get free of the shower curtains. The tears and sharp edges of the metal body caught at the curtains and tore the plastic. Well, that explains the ripped blankets.

"He-Wait, no-" I raised my hands and crouched closer to the floor, trying to seem as little a threat as I could to him. I had trained animals before, so I could only hope that it'd work with him. It seemed to be pretty effective, however, as he instead opted to lie still and stare at me quietly.

I cleared my throat and looked down. "Uh- do you- do you need some help, there..?" I asked quietly. A moment passed by with nothing being said and him still just lying there and staring at me, before he slowly nodded. I walked toward him slowly, with my hands still up in defense and still crouching. He flinched when I moved closer. When I was close enough, I began unwrapping the shower curtain without trying to rip it more than it already was.

Yeah, there was no way this was going to be salvageable. I'd have to go out and get a new one.

When I finally manage to unwrap him from the curtains, he jumps up and scoots back, away from me. I yelp in surprise and scoot back as well, flinching on impulse. I raise my hands again and he crouches, getting ready in case of an attack.

"N-no, no, no, no, no!" I shouted, lowering my voice when he perked up to look at me. "No, I-I'm not gonna hurt you!"

He reluctantly lowered his hands, instead letting them rest against his legs.

I managed to calm him down enough to stop flinching every time I moved, but we still sat a ways apart. I sat by the door, with my back against the wall and my legs in front of me comfortably. He sat on the other end of the room, against the bathtub with his knees close to his chest, his hands resting on top of them.

The only way I was able to calm him down was to show him a few of the things in the room, to make it more comfortable for him, to let him know his surroundings. So far he hadn't said anything, and I began to wonder if maybe he couldn't speak for some reason. He only nodded yes, shook his head no, or shrugged his shoulders. He seemed very interested in learning what other things were, but refused to move or get up from his spot by the tub. So I was showing him a few things in my reach.

I looked around me, huffing. What else could I show him...

There was a maxi pad a little ways off, but I was  _not_  going to teach a robot about a period.

So instead I picked up a bottle of shampoo that fell from the counter earlier that I felt too lazy to put away. I held it up for him to read the lable, and he leaned forward slightly.

"Shampoo," I said flatly. "You, uh, you use it on your hair," I gestured to my brunette hair, wafting my fingers through it slowly. "It cleans it. The hair, the shampoo cleans the hair."

And that was the first time he spoke that day.

" _Shapoo._ "

His voice was scratchy and glitched every now and then, and he left out the 'm' sound in the word, but he repeat the word. I sat there, shocked. After a moment's hesitation, he slowly uncurled from his protective spot by the tub and leaned forward on his knees and one of his hands, using his other to reach forward. His hand was uncurled, so I assumed he wanted the bottle. I slowly put it in his hand.

The second it was in his grasp and I let go, he leaned back into his fetal position, looking over the container. He looked up at me.

" _Shapoo?_ "

I grinned.

"Shampoo," I corrected him, pronouncing the m. "Shammm-poo."

" _Shammmpoo. Hair and shammmpoo."_

I laughed.

Then he opened the bottle and poured it on his head.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, guys!! I'm not gonna be here this weekend, so I hope this will tide you over until I get back!!

He immediately jumped up from his sitting position and and I fell back in surprise. I drew in a sharp breath and held it, waiting for him to do something. It probably was not a smart idea to pour it on his head. If I'd known he'd do that, I wouldn't have given the bottle to him. But instead, he just stood there. He didn't move, didn't glitch or speak. Just stood there quietly.

 

“I-.... are you.. okay...?” I whispered, mentally cursing when my voice came out quieter than I meant it to. He was quiet for a moment, then his helm tilted down slightly to look at me.

 

“ _Shammmpoo..._ ” he said, his own voice just above a whisper as well. I hadn't known robots were able to whisper. Then again, I don't know why they wouldn't be able to. His body then violently shivered and his head spasmed to the side before returning back to the original position as if nothing happened.

 

“ _Cold._ ”

 

I smiled, holding down a laugh.

 

“Yeah, I don't think shampoo is made for you...” I laughed. “It's just for humans.” He continued just standing there, and I steadied my breathing when I realized he wasn't attacking.

 

“Do you,” I cleared my throat. “Do you want some help, there?”

 

He waits for a moment, thinking about his answer.

 

“ _Yes_ ,” he finally decides, nodding his head once. “ _Help_.”

 

I stand up slowly, using my hands for leverage. I steady myself when I stand up fully, my feet gaining its' feeling back after sitting for a while. The familiar pins and needles feeling flashed through my legs and I wait for a moment, both to let my legs wake up and to let Ultron calm down. He tries to take a step back after I stood, the loud bang that rings out when his foot hits the tub makes me cringe. I've always hates the sound of metal hitting things. I hold up my hands to try and show him I mean no harm, but he still crouches down just slightly.

 

“I'm- I'm just gonna get the towel...” I say quietly, taking a step closer to the counter. He takes a step closer to the wall, opposite of me, but he does lower his hands just slightly.

 

After grabbing the towel, I manage to get close enough to him to wipe off most of the shampoo. He seemed to have calmed down after the second try to wipe off the gel without him panicking. He seemed to be scared of everything. He was lax, now, though. He had calmed drastically and instead simply stood there silently as I cleaned his helm. I took that time to really look over him.

 

He was about my height, but with the limp and him bending over due to his lost leg, he could be taller than me. In fact, I think that if I was able to repair him, he'd be at least a few inches taller.

 

Speaking of repairing him, I'd have to find enough metals to put something together for him. With the amount of metal I'd already found before finding him, I might have enough to repair his leg, but most likely not enough for his arm. Where only from the ankle down his foot was missing, almost his entire arm was missing. Don't even get me started on the rest of his body. Multiple chunks of metal were missing throughout his entire body, his chest, his still-intact hand, his other leg, even his helm was badly damaged. It'd take a lot to fix him up enough for him to just walk without a limp.

 

I realized that I must have been staring, as I looked up to see Ultron looking at me curiously. For a moment, neither of us moved. And then I remembered I was holding a hand towel covered in shampoo.

 

“Oh, well, uh, I cleaned the shampoo off..” I stepped back and laughed nervously. He raised his hand and placed it on his head, feeling it.

 

“ _Clean hair?_ ”

 

I snorted and took another step back. When he looked at me, confused, I cleared my throat and smiled politely. “You don't have hair.”

 

He looked honestly shocked, as if he honestly thought he had hair on his head. “No, no,” I put my hand on his arm when he began to panic about where his hair was, as if he had lost it somewhere on his way in. He recoiled into the corner and hugged himself and I pulled back. “You don't have hair because you never had any. This,” I put my hand to my head, letting my fingers sift through my hair as I spoke. “This is hair.” He stilled for a moment, still coiled in the corner, and he slowly took a step forward. I held my breath when he reached out and placed his hand on my hair. He imitated the move I made, his fingers sifting through my hair.

 

“ _Clean hair?_ ” He repeated. I nodded just slightly, afraid he'd pull away if I moved too much.

 

“Yes, my hair is clean. I showered.”

 

“ _Shower makes clean hair. Shower and shammmpoo._ ” I bit my lip to keep from laughing at how he continued to pronounce shampoo.

 

“Yes. Shampoo and showers make your hair clean.”

 

He nods his head and takes his hand back. He looks around the room, as if he suddenly remembered that he was in an unfamiliar place. He seemed much more comfortable around me now, as he moved around me to look at the surrounding area without being cautious. He touched the counter as he walked, looking at the ceiling and the floor as he moved.

 

“ _Where?_ ”

 

“I- you mean, where are you?” He turned quickly, looking at me.

 

“ _Where._ ”

 

“You're in my home,” I answered simply.

 

“ _Home? Where is home?_ ”

 

“Home isn't anywhere specifically...” I cleared my throat, wording my sentence delicately. “Home is where you feel safe. It's where your family is. You know, it's where you're happy at.”

 

He stood still for a moment, processing the description that I had given him. He stood straight, or as straight as he could stand with the limp and the missing leg, and looked over at the counter, thinking.

 

“ _Where is my home? Is this my home?_ ” He asked quietly, putting his hands back on the counter and looking into the mirror. Whether he was looking at himself or at me was something I didn't have the answer to.

 

 

“Only if you make it your home.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hi (: i'm not dead, I swear.

Erin Primette: Yes, it does look that way, doesn't it?  **twirls evil mustache**  mnehehehe

Sethadore: Ahh I couldn't help it! He really  _does_  remind me of my OC, Artsy!

To everybody: I'm sorry that updates are so slow! I don't have a plot line to follow, like the movie, so this is all coming from my thoughts, purely! I have a lot of school stress right now, so thinking up ideas is a bit hard for me. I refuse to abandon the story, though, so hang in there, guys! -Sil))

The next day came a lot sooner than Sarah would have liked. After having the little fiasco in the bathroom, Ultron powered down. Turns out he had only enough energy in him to be up for a couple of minutes. He rested on the floor, underneath the desk, with a charger plugged into a port on the back of his head while Sarah cleaned her room. She also had to clean the little mess they had made in the restroom.

She put more shampoo on the shopping list.

Sarah was internally grateful that her mother had been asleep through the whole fiasco, so she didn't have to answer to her angry gaze about how an entire bottle of shampoo was wasted in ten minutes, along with a lot of expensive glasses around her room.

But as stated before, Monday came a lot quicker than she would have preferred. Not only did she have homework that she hadn't finished over the weekend, but she's also got to worry about Ultron while she's gone at school. She could probably let him charge the whole time she was away, but there was a chance he would wake up as soon as he was fully charged, and then he would be causing a mess and getting in trouble with her mother.

She thought over this as she showered in slightly colder water than she usually showers in, to wake herself up. She readies herself for the day, and finally calls Louisa when she's putting her books in her backpack.

" _Louisa B, who is this?_ "

"This is your mother speaking. Get off the couch, lazy bum," Sarah smiles into the phone.

" _Damn. You caught me._ " They both laugh, and Sarah runs out the door, locking it with her phone squished between her shoulder and her ear. They continue their conversation as she walks down to the bus station.

"Really, though, are you coming to school today?"

" _Am I being given a choice? Because if so, no, no I will not._ "

"Too bad. I'll see you at lunch."

" _If you say so._ "

There was a moment of silence on both sides of the phone as Sarah jogged to the bus station, cursing herself for going to sleep so late and sleeping in on a school night. There was some rustling on the other end as Sarah neared the bus station, and she assumed a door had opened.

" _Alright I gotta go. Have fun flunking school, you nerd,_ " Louisa says through the phone, her voice slightly belated due to the movement of her moving out her own front door.

"I never flunked-" she could not finish the sentence as Louisa had hung up before she could finish speaking. Sarah was willing to bet Louisa was laughing as she drove to school in her mother's car. Damn it. I put my phone back in my front pocket, as I never really liked putting it in my back pocket, and I stood alone in the cold as I waited for the bus to arrive. Very few people in my neighborhood went to the same school as I did, and those who did usually rode with their parents or had a bike. I had a bike as well, but it was in my bedroom as I couldn't leave it out in the cold or it would rust. I'd never felt too comfortable riding the bike in actual traffic. I was a good rider, of course, but I always had the fear I would do something wrong or end up getting hurt somehow. As a young girl with Agliophobia, the fear of pain, the thought of getting hurt in any way always controlled my actions, so I'd always chose to ride the bus.

The bus pulls up, and I get on, greeting the usual bus driver, Howard. He was a kind man in his late thirties, but he can snap pretty easily if you keep pestering him. I suppose that may be why I was his favorite, I kept to myself and didn't bother him while he drove.

"Good morning, Sarah," he greeted me as he closes the door behind me, smiling gently. I sit up at the front of the bus, in my usual seat right by the door.

"Hey, Howard," I smiled back, sitting down and setting my backpack next to me. Usually Howard wasn't okay with letting one person take up a whole seat, but since the early bus always had few people on it, almost everybody sat on separate seats. I just make sure nobody would sit next to me.

Not that I didn't like other people, but as an introvert, I just relished in the feeling of being alone.

I sat by the window, with my backpack laying out by the door, and I leaned against the cold, metallic wall, looking out the window. Fog had started covering the windows already, and I smiled at the thought of drawing a couple of pictures on it while the bus drove to the school.

The ride was silent, or, as silent as a bus with teenage kids can be. There was, of course, the small chatter of friends, and the occasional shout or loud laughter, and if the bus was quiet for long enough, you could hear the sound of the radio playing in the background. Howard would only play the radio for us if everybody was behaving.

I thought about the robot I had left in my room. Ultron.

My immediate thought was a concern if he would wake up when he was charged, while I was away, and do something stupid, but then it switched to-  _do I really want him in my house_? I'm not an idiot, and I watch the news. I know what he did, what he tried to do, what his ultimate plan was. Sure the Avengers stopped it, they managed to save a bunch of people too, and I may have taken his memory, but how long until he gets it back, if he ever does? What then? Will he continue his plans of tyranny? Will he kill more people?

Will he kill me?

I believe in second chances, no matter the crime, but I can't help but be worried about him. He could end up hurting the people closest to me. Louisa, my mother, my school friends..

_What if somebody finds him._

Him hurting people is a big concern, but something else that had been nagging at me was the thought that somebody could realize who he was, and that I was hiding him. Would they think me a traitor? What would they do with him? Kill him, again? What if they saw that he was different? Were they willing to give him a second chance, or would they not hesitate to end his existence once more?

All these thoughts were bound to catch up with me some time, but now is not that time. I pushed them aside as the school bus stopped in front of my high school. Right now, I had to focus on classes, and making good grades.

I would worry about Ultron later, I decided. Though I couldn't help the racing thoughts as I walked slowly to the doors of the school. Something could go terribly wrong. I could not only end up ruining my life, but my friends' as well. I pushed open the door to my school and I put on a forced smile, greeting the door manager politely. It is, after all, easier to fake a smile once you've been doing it for a while.

((ALSO, ! THIS IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER IN THE STORY SO FAR! SO HEY BE GLAD FOR THAT, I GUESS! Tip: reviews. Reviews help a lot more than you think, peeps. They boost my confidence a lot, and they also help me learn which parts you do and don't like, so I can shift it a bit. So! Review! Lot's of reviews, please!))


	9. Chapter 9

 

The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly. Or, at least the school day did.

 

I met up with Louisa at the front doors, we had breakfast together and talked. Mostly about Ultron, she was curious on how he was doing and what was going on. I told her all about how he had woken up and how he broke half of my room and bathroom. She laughed at the shampoo part. She 'aww'd at our conversation. We left and went to our separate classes.

 

I breezed through all of my classes, getting good grades and being the classic teacher pet all day. I avoided conversation, but smiled and politely chatted when I was caught in one.

 

I ate lunch with Louisa and two other friends of ours, Lexa and Gabriel. Gabriel was my younger brother, he lived with our father in another home. I'm honestly only two weeks older than him, 13 days to be exact, but I flaunt it at every turn I get.

 

I went back to classes after lunch, tried to ignore Louisa's silly faces in 7th class, failed miserable and got in trouble with the teacher for laughing when she was talking.

 

I went home afterward.

 

I took the bus, said hello to Howard, rode back in silence. Gabriel rode at the back of the bus, with his friends, so I stayed alone at the front. The bus was almost empty by the time we were on our way to my house.

 

Howard stopped at the bus stop in front of mine, and I put my backpack over my shoulder, waiting for him to drop me off at my stop. He didn't close the doors, and he turned to look at me.

 

“You gotta get off at this stop, Sarah,” he said, adjusting his hat. I furrowed my brows and looked at him, confused.

 

“Why? The next stop is where I get off.”

 

At this point everybody on the bus had stopped chatting happily and were listening in on the conversation, as if something bad was about to go down and they wanted to be there when it did.

 

“The road is blocked off there. You gotta walk from here. Sorry,” he tipped his hat and I stood up, relieved. The road was simply blocked off, nothing bad was going on.

 

“Alright. See you tomorrow, Howard,” I replied, walking down the stairs. Gabriel waved to me from the back, and I stuck my tongue out at him as I walked away.

 

“See you tomorrow, Sarah.” He closed the doors, the engine began and I watched the bus take off. I began the short walk to my house, and I looked up at the clouds as I walked slowly. My hand swung by my side lazily, while the other held onto the strap of my backpack slung over my shoulder. The clouds seemed to sway back and forth as I walked, and I focused on them. Nothing else existed when I watched the bright clouds, seeming to stay in place but move around all at once.

 

That is, nothing else existed but the clouds and the police sirens.

 

The sounds grew louder, starting as a faint background noise and growing, like my curiosity. I looked down, maybe a little too fast as my head spun, and I slowed my walk as the sirens got louder. I looked at the street, but there were no passing police cars. I continued walking toward my house, holding onto my backpack with both hands now, curious and nervous to turn the corner to my neighborhood.

 

I turned, and my eyes widened at what I saw. Everything seemed to slow down as I took in the sight before me.

 

My neighbors were all out of their houses, holding each other and some seemed to be crying. Police cars littered the circle of my neighborhood, and I saw an ambulance in the center of the mess of police cars, their back doors were open, and they were wheeling somebody into the back, on a stretcher.

 

The person wasn't moving.

 

I began walking forward, wondering who it was. My neighbors spotted me and began making their way toward me, smiling sympathetically, holding out their arms to embrace me. _Why._

 

I pushed past them and continued walking, determined to find out who it was, what had happened, _why they're giving me these looks_.

 

As I walked forward, the police spotted me as well. They began walking toward me, and I pushed forward. Two police men stopped me halfway through and began talking, but I wasn't listening. _Who is it? Don't look at me that way._

 

“Ma'am,” a police officer called, holding out his arms to stop me from continuing past him. “Nobody is allowed beyond this point. You'll have to take a step back, miss.”

 

I tried to push past him, but he was bigger and stronger than I was. But he wasn't very smart. I moved off to the side, and when he raised his arms to hold me down, I ducked under him and ran toward my house, ignoring his shouts to come back. More officers were there, and they came to stop me when they heard the shouts of the others, but I ducked and weaved through the mess of cars and people, dropping my backpack to move faster. It was at the end of the neighborhood when the officers managed to stop me. But I saw what it was.

 

My front door was open, and the house was charred, threatening to fall apart by even the gentlest wind. I stood still in shock, and my mouth opened, to speak, but nothing came out. _My house. Mom._ I turned, seeing the officers coming to get me, and I saw into the ambulance's back doors before they closed. My mother was in the back, covered by a gray blanket. She wasn't moving, and seemed to be not breathing. I didn't move as I watched them close the doors, separating me from my mother. I didn't move as they began to drag me away from the scene. I didn't move even as I thought of how this could have happened, about _what_ had happened. _Why._

 

“What-” I began, but a lump had formed in my throat and I was choking back my tears, holding down my emotions. They dragged me back to the rest of the crowd, and I assumed they didn't know I lived there, or they would have let me see my mother. The next thing I knew, I was being embraced by our next door neighbors, the Clarks. The woman who lived with them was almost like a second mother to me, and the man taught me everything my own father couldn't. In turn, I was a tutor for their kids whenever they needed help, and I babysat often.

 

“Oh, Sarah,” I could hear the woman mutter, petting my hair to soothe my nerves. I turned in her embrace to watch the ambulance pull away, with my mother inside, when a sudden thought hit me.

 

_Ultron._

 

_Where was Ultron._

 

I pushed my emotions aside, something I was familiar with doing, and I broke the embrace. The kind elderly woman let me leave, as she knew I wasn't a touchy-feely kind of person. I looked back at my house, but before I could move, the entire thing collapsed. People screamed from shock and surprise, and smoke and dust flew up everywhere. The police began pushing the crowd back, and I wondered why there were so many of them. They're weren't this many officers for a simply fire, what had really happened? And then another thought hit me. One I would rather forget.

 

_Did Ultron start the fire?_

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ((So sorry for the wait! School is ending, so I have lots of tests and the such. Expect the next chapter next week!))

The small thumb drive was cold, despite it mostly being made of plastic. Though it could have been the room, she reasoned, as she glanced around at the metallic table and concrete walls, even looking to the one way window on the other side of the room. Honestly, the only thing that didn't make this seem like an interrogation was that she wasn't handcuffed.

But that wasn't really enough to calm Sarah's nerves.

After admitting to the police that the house was hers, and the person being wheeled away was her mother, they had taken her into custody. Why, she was never told. She was brought here, to this small, cold room, and left in a chair, told to "wait here". Sarah had been waiting for almost ten minutes now, and she was getting a little frustrated.

The only thing she was allowed to keep after the officers took her things, was a single thumb drive. The one containing the rest of Ultron's memory files, the ones she hadn't included when awakening the robot. She hadn't known why she was allowed to keep it and couldn't keep something as simple as her jacket, but she wasn't complaining.

Not yet, at least. She was definitely going to complain for how long she was being kept here, alone and almost freezing cold.

She had been alone in the room for so long, she had gotten used to the quiet, which seemed to be the reason why she had been so surprised when she heard a small, quiet shuffling. She looked up just slightly, not giving away that she had heard anything. The black tinted window pushed out just slightly, and Sarah knew that someone was on the other side.

Then the door swung open, stopping just short of slamming against the other wall.

Sarah watched as a female clad in a black skintight outfit walked in. She pulled out a chair and sat, watching Sarah closely. Sarah watched back. The female pushed her red hair behind her ear as she sat back in her chair. The woman looked familiar, Sarah noted. She had always been bad with names.

"Hello," she looked down at the file she was holding for a brisk moment. "Sarah M. Harken, is it?"

Sarah sat back in her chair as well, looking the female in the eyes as she covered the plastic drive in her hands tightly.

"Depends." The redhead tilted her head to the side. "What's your file say?"

There was a moment of silence before the woman smiled. "Feisty," came her single remark. She opened up the file and took out a few pages, which included several images and lots of words Sarah couldn't read from where she sat.

"What's the 'M' stand for, Sarah?" The woman asked, not bothering to look up as she talked.

"My middle name."

"What is your middle name?"

"Sorry, I don't like to give out my name to strangers."

The woman looked up at that.

"Oh, right. I apologize, I should have introduced myself." The woman reached her hand over the table, over the files, and held it in front of Sarah, waiting to shake her hand. "My name is Natalie Rankchov."

Sarah lent forward and shook her hand, plastering on a fake smile.

"No it isn't," Sarah said smoothly, her name suddenly coming back to her. The woman froze. "You're name is Natasha Romanov, the Avenger, right?" She retracted her hand.

"Thought you said I was a stranger."

"You're a stranger because I have never met you before."

"Really?"

"Now, I've met you. My name is Sarah Marie Harken."

They both sat in silence.

"Do you know why you're here, Marie?" The younger woman flinched. She was never very fond of people using her middle name.

"No idea. Honestly I had no idea why the police would take me in, but an Avenger? Now I'm even more confused," she answered honestly, though still with her witty tone. It was just habit to speak her mind, and honestly, it got her into a lot of trouble.

Natasha hummed, looking between Sarah's brown eyes, searching for something.

"Do you live alone, Marie?" Sarah was sure she was just using that name to make her upset now.

"No. I lived with my mother, but she was taken to the hospital a while ago."

"Anyone else?"

Sarah was suddenly reminded of Ultron.

"No." Sarah knew she was a terrible liar, and that the woman in front of her most likely caught that she was lying, but she felt the need to protect the robot. Only until she could convince people that he wasn't the same as before.

_Only until she could convince herself that he wasn't the same as before._

Natasha hummed again, looking down at the images in the file. Sarah couldn't read the descriptions under them, but she was able to see that most of the pictures were of her house, only after the fire. Honestly, Sarah was glad she didn't see any pictures of herself in there, or she would have thought they had been stalking her, but no, they were all of the burnt house. Her eye, however, was immediately caught to an image in the corner. It was buried under the other pictures, but she could clearly see the corner, where a gray, metallic looking creature was running, away from the house.

Ultron.

Maybe he had started the fire, then ran. Maybe the fire was started naturally, and he ran because he was afraid. And then Sarah remembered something.

He wasn't even supposed to be awake.

Sarah wasn't a genius, sure, but she could do her math. She knew he would have been charging all day, an hour after school had ended at least. How did he get up? Did she do her math wrong? Perhaps he didn't require as long of a time to charge as she had suspected?

And then she gasped quietly. He didn't--

"What is it?"

Sarah looked up at the sound, recognizing the fact that Natasha had asked her what was wrong.

"What?"

"What's wrong? You gasped."

"I was just breathing."

Natasha sighed, putting the file down, continuing to look Sarah in the eyes.

"You're awfully defensive, _Marie_ ," she murmured. "Are you possibly hiding something?"

"I came home from school to see the roads blocked off and my house burning to the ground. I was then taken by the police and locked in this metal box for a solid ten minutes, and then questioned about my personal life. I'm sorry, but am I so wrong to be hesitant of you people?"

"Us people?"

"Your buddies behind the window," Sarah nodded her head to the tinted screen.

"What makes you think anyone is behind there?"

"They hit the window."

And with that single sentence, the room went quiet. Natasha breathed quietly, and Sarah ran her thumb over the drive protectively. And then it clicked.

Holy shit, the Avengers know she has Ultron.


	11. Chapter 11

((Sorry for the long wait, guys!   
K9Train- thank you! And yeah, I thought up the banana chips idea when trying to sleep and it had made me laugh, which is why I had added it. Glad you found it funny, too!  
UltronEmperor- You'll see :P  
ErinPrimette- Perhaps. Or perhaps someone else is getting involved with her life, now? Hmmm.))

Sarah vagualy remembers asking herself how her life had gotten to the point it was in now.

Just a week ago, Sarah was a normal kid(albeit a bit nerdy) going to a normal school with normal friends('cept Louisa. That girl's anything but normal.), living with her mother until she turns 18 and gets a place of her own. Now, she was searching through a forest for a lost robot with amnesia.

Just where the hell did she go wrong?

Sarah had been interrogated by S.H.I.E.L.D., or at least by an agent, yesterday afternoon. Seeing as they had no reason to keep her there legally, they let her go last night. She stayed in the hospital with her mother overnight, then set out to find Ultron in the morning.

Her mother was doing fine, as far as she knew. She had yet to wake up, so nobody could really question what had happened, but by the burn scars adorning her body, it was quite obviously a fire. Sarah just hoped it wasn't Ultron who had started the fire.

So, here she was now, searching through the woods around her house at 6 PM, the sky starting to grow dark. She doubted he'd still be here, but then quickly dismissed the thought as she remembered he wasn't as smart as he used to be(thank god for that). Though, she couldn't help but be intimidated by the fact that he could be anywhere by now. There's a chance she may not be able to find him at all, and there is certainly a chance S.H.I.E.L.D. could find him first.

What if they kill him? Would that technically be murder, since this robot in particular has yet to do anything wrong?

Sarah began subconciously making an argument if she ever had to talk them out of killing him. Him. She still has yet to settle on a name. Would calling him "Ultron" bring back old memories or something?

If anything, it's still the name of a murderer, so she's not naming him that.

She spent the next hour and a half trudging through the dry forest, thinking of random names. She began to halfass the names halfway through, though.

Reginald. John. She glanced at trees around her. Leaf. Bark. Grass. Lucas? Nah. Connor? Maybe.

She was stopped before she could continue her name-picking game by a rustling and an odd, machine-like noise. She couldn't quite place a finger on what the noise was, but it was definitely something akin to a machine. She looked over.

Oil.

There was oil on bushes, leaves, the ground... trailing to where the noise had come from. The fuck? Did he bleed oil, because quite frankly, Sarah couldn't remember giving him any oil. In fact, if she could remember right, he ran purely on battery power.

Curiosity be damned.

She followed the trail.

Sarah had always believed in the saying "what you lose in one sense, you make up for in another", because she had always thought it was true. Her eyesight pretty much sucked(she should have brought her blue glasses with her to school. They probably burned in the fire), so she liked to believe she had pretty damned good hearing. She was always acutely aware of her own footsteps. This made it much easier for her to sneak, that's for sure. She followed the trail quietly, avoiding crunchy leaves and thin twigs. Though she couldn't help the short giggle that escaped her when realizing this was such a cliche horror movie scene. A young(beautiful, she liked to think) woman following a trail in a dark forest that could very well kill her.

Curiosity killed the cat, Louisa would always tell her.

And Satisfaction brought it back, she'd always retort.

That was certainly true, she thought, when she rounded a tree and saw the body of the robot hiding in a bush.

"Ultron?" She whispered, then remembered she wasn't going to call him that. "Er-I mean, uh, C-Connor?" she quickly decided on the name she thought of earlier. Connor. She'd call him Connor.

The droid jumped up, effectively scaring the shit out of Sarah. She had assumed, what with his slumped position, that he was pretty much dead.

 _Connor_ turned and looked at her. Perhaps it was her imagination, but he seemed to relax when he realized who it was.

_"Miss?"_

"What?"

 _"Miss?"_ He repeated, turning his head in curiosity. He took a step back, seeming hesitant now. He raised a small stack of papers stapled together, pointing at it, looking at Sarah.

_"Miss."_

Sarah looked closer, almost laughing when she realized what it was.

It was a fanfiction she had written. Nothing smutty or inappropriate, mind you, just some ideas she had of her favorite fictional characters. She stopped smiling, however, when she realized what this meant.

He had read it(that thought alone almost made her laugh again) and had known what it meant. He read someone(Sarah couldn't really remember what fandom that fanfic was in) calling a woman "miss" and had assumed that was the right thing to do.

Alright, so, he couldn't search through the internet, but he as definitely a fast learner.


End file.
